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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Story Time

Strangely, I have very little to say about food today. I consider that odd, given the only two things that don't involve the people in my life that I think about are food and math. But, I've thought a lot about math lately - probably on account of my insane decision to take 12 hours this summer!

Last night, my brother texted to let me know he was in town, and did I want to get together. We had some lovely, fragrant Pho. I got lost on the way to his hotel. Apparently, despite my half-hearted attempts to acclimate, I only know how to get to the grocery store, the post office, school, couple restaurants and the laundromat.

I think I forgot to eat today. I remember eating some fruit salad (watermelon, pear, strawberries and lemon juice) for breakfast. When I remember to buy fruit for it, I make a big bowl and eat it every morning for breakfast. I remember having coffee. That's all I remember. I'm sure I must've eaten something. But if I did, I have no idea what it was. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to ditch work and have dinner again with my brother and one of his friends who is also in town. I haven't met this person, so it'll be neat to get to meet another of his friends.

P asked for a care package. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me to send him one sooner! He wanted many, many bars of assorted, non-American chocolate to give as a gift to his host family, he wanted mint chocolate chip cookies (homemade, of course. I don't know if P remembers what processed cookies even taste like), and cough drops. Evidently, what is cheap, over the counter medication here in the States is extraordinarily expensive stuff over there. He said he spent about fifty US dollars buying some sort of cough drops and a bottle of vitamin c pills. Those must be some cough drops! Anyway, I put together the care package and included a can of dolma to go with the chocolate for his host family. I'll mail it tomorrow.

Also, I made some cheese breads. I didn't cook them; just made the dough, shaped and froze them. P and I have an online date tomorrow to eat cheese breads. His will be fresh from the merchant, mine fresh from the oven. I'm anxious for him to be home. I know this because I've found myself feeling quite sappy recently, which is somewhat abnormal for me (those of you who know me IRL know how much of an understatement that is).

Today, I had what was simultaneously the most bizarre, surreal experience at school and quite possibly the greatest compliment I've ever received. Normally I leave history a few minutes early, because my other class is at a different campus. Today, my professor (who really is one of my favourites - he's very entertaining and goofy) asked me to not leave, because he needed to talk to me after the class was gone. I was curious, because normally you only hear that sort of thing when you've done something wrong. While I've been uncharacteristically quiet in his class this time around (5 week semester, people! I'm tired!), I didn't think I'd done anything wrong. Normally I know when I do since I do it on purpose. So I said okay, and tried to figure out what I'd done. Then it occurred to me he might want to talk about his memory flashdrive stick thing. I put all my study sheets on them for him, and at the close of this semester he'll have both semester's worth saved up for whatever it is he wants them for. He dismissed class early (thanks!) and I got out the memory stick while I waited for the other students to leave.

He did not, in fact, want to talk about the memory stick. Instead, he handed me a copy of the test we're taking on Monday (with answers), that had been scribbled all over in red ink. Apparently, there were some mistakes in the tests, plus he wanted to take questions out of the test because we hadn't gone over them in class. He wanted to know if I'd take the test, fix/revise it and retype it, then print it out and give it to him. I said sure. I thought it was weird, but I didn't really see any harm in it.

So I did fix the test. And I will tell you, it took more willpower than I've ever needed before not to copy down the answers, so I could memorise them. I mean... I was looking at something I shouldn't even be seeing, that I could totally memorise in just a few minutes and keep in my head until Monday. But integrity is really important to me. So I just transcribed it, and corrected the spelling errors. And I didn't copy the answer key. But I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

Anyway, I realised after I got the new test back to him that him asking me was a tremendous compliment, because it implied that he knew I wouldn't copy the answers or sell it or whatever. And that, I believe, is as big of a compliment as I think anyone can ever receive. I feel very proud.

About Me

The culinary adventures of a full-time, non-traditional grad student in Houston. My focus is on healthful, delicious meals that emphasize frugality in the kitchen, eliminating food waste, and a willing openness toward exploring the flavors of various cuisines.